Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books - The Best Children's UK Book Picks February 2022
I was Haven Point's first Wreckling, but I certainly wasn't the last. There are forty-two of us now, not including the mermaids. When you're a Wreckling, you mainly spend your days squabbling, eating and planning adventures. Oh, and Wrecklings also carry out wreckings, which is how we got our name . . .
Washed up as a baby beside a remote lighthouse and raised by a mermaid, Alpha Lux was the first foundling at Haven Point. Now the lighthouse is a ramshackle home for any disabled person who needs somewhere to belong. Looting from passing ships to make a living, they call themselves the Wrecklings, and for the children of Haven Point life is spent adventuring on the wild shore (and getting into trouble with the grown-ups).
But when Alpha spots a strange light up on the headland, she realizes that her beloved family are in danger of being discovered by Outsiders.
With their home under threat, the Wrecklings must decide what kind of future they want . . . and what they're willing to do to get it.
Eve Wersocki Morris - The Bird Singers - Published by Hodder Children's Books (3 Feb. 2022) - ISBN-13 : 978-1444963328 - Paperback
'The whistling had started on their first night. At first, Layah thought it was bird song - a high thin sound which became a melody, rising and falling. And each night, it returned.'
Strange things have been happening to Layah and her younger sister, Izzie, ever since their mother dragged them to a rain-soaked cottage miles from anywhere in the Lake District: there is a peculiar whistling at night, a handful of unusual feathers appear on their doorstep and there are murmurings of a shadowed woman in the forest. And their mother is behaving very oddly. Layah is mourning the loss of her dear grandmother in Poland - and can almost hear her Babcia's voice telling her the old myths and fairy tales from that magical place.
And as the holiday takes on a dark twist, Layah begins to wonder if the myths might just be real.
Mitch Johnson - Spark - Published by Orion Children's Books (3 Feb. 2022) - ISBN-13 : 978-1510107632 - Paperback
In a world struggling to exist, only the strongest will survive. The explosive, action-packed new adventure from the award-winning author of Kick and Pop!
Ash has always lived in Last Village, lonely since the day his father left and never came back.
The world is unbearably hot, water is drying up, and life is hard. After a vicious thunderstorm, Ash wakes to find that the village's water has completely run out, and all the other villagers have mysteriously disappeared.
Accompanied by the outcast Bronwyn, Ash sets off in search of water, for answers about what happened to the villagers, with hope they might find 'The Kingdom' - a rumoured land to the north where life still flourishes.
Ash and Bronwyn have to survive a journey across an arid landscape, discovering that other people out there are even more dangerous than the lightning strikes that follow them. Then they reach The Wall - beyond it, something impossible.
Lying in wait are the answers Ash is searching for, and maybe even the truth about what happened to his father. If only he could get past The Wall...
Sometimes all it takes is just one spark.
Paul Biegel - The King of Copper Mountains - Published by Pushkin Children's Books (3 Feb. 2022) - ISBN-13 : 978-1782693390 - Paperback
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